Robogames, "world's largest robot competition," in SF June 12-14

The annual DIY robotics event is just a week away. Anyone can participate -- and that means you.

This years attendees come from Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Russia, South Korea, UK, and the United States. Can the UK's 5-time gold medalist "Ziggy" retain it's lead for an amazing 6th year? Will Brazil finally sweep the combat classes? Can Team USA regain the top spot in humanoid soccer, having lost a heartbreaking defeat to Austria?

The event will host over 70 different competitions, including 18 different events just for walking humanoids. Large scale combat robots will fight to the death behind bulletproof glass, thrilling the crowd with crashing, smashing, flame-throwing, and miscellaneous wanton destruction. The combat robots, weighing as much as 340 pounds, are what draws most people to the event, but many stay for the AI based sumo robots, soccer bots, and kinetic art that fills out the venue.

But that's not all - other events include kung-fu humanoids, hockey bots, fire fighting competitions, autonomous explorer bots (like the Mars Rovers!), art bots, bartending robots, and mechanical marvels that defy description! The newest event is "Mech Warfare." Humanoid robots with bb cannons and rockets with try to take each other down, while the pilots control them remotely via in-robot cameras, with no look at the field from above.

Robogames: Friday-Sunday, June 12-14, 2009, Fort Mason, San Francisco. Kids under 7 get in free, tickets for everyone else range from $15-20 per day. I've witnessed their events before, and the Robogames folks always put on an amazing show. Well worth the modest ticket price. (Image courtesy Robogames)